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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29175543">Valued</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeiasLeftBun/pseuds/LeiasLeftBun'>LeiasLeftBun</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>SWR Kanan Lives AU [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebels</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, I have only written a few slightly violent things this year, here’s Hera losing more family</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 12:28:58</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,568</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29175543</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeiasLeftBun/pseuds/LeiasLeftBun</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
      <p>The ones taking lives pointlessly never see the person as a person.</p>
    </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>C1-10P | Chopper &amp; Hera Syndulla, Cham Syndulla &amp; Hera Syndulla, Cham Syndulla/Hera Syndulla’s Mother, Hera Syndulla &amp; Hera Syndulla's Mother</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>SWR Kanan Lives AU [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1877149</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Valued</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>The ones taking lives pointlessly never see the person as a person.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The light-green Twi’lek was thrown from her rusted speeder by a small grenade tossed into the road, knocking the wind out of her as she hit the well-packed ground. By the time she’d reoriented herself, she’d already slid enough to bloody her arms on small bits of jagged rock. In fact, her body had only <em>stopped</em> because her skull had met with the front of a building. </p>
<p>
  <em>Fuck. Just what I needed. </em>
</p>
<p>She winced, checking her ability to move each appendage as she caught her breath, not wanting to waste a moment. Not able to waste a moment. Troopers were combing through the area and her husband, along with their group, would already minimally be blocks ahead. </p>
<p>
  <em>Terrible idea. He told me taking the time to alert the other civilians was a terrible idea and he was right. They would have been fine. </em>
</p>
<p>She crawled off the road to hide behind a crate. She almost certainly had a concussion. She fumbled around in her pocket to find her comm. The top of the mic was popped off, but it was functional. "Cham?" She hoped it was loud enough he could hear, but in reality she couldn’t tell the volume in which she was speaking. </p>
<p>"Tislera? What happened?" She could hear muffled blaster fire coming faintly through the ringing. She relaxed at the sound of his voice nonetheless. It would be pointless to worry him, he was already in the middle of the battle she was supposed to be helping with. "Tis? Are you okay?" </p>
<p>How long had that pause been? She could taste blood. She put all her energy into her next few sentences. "I’m fine. Roads are blocked now. I will meet you inside the main building as soon as I can." The comm connection was weak. "Remember the way you take. We may need it as an escape route." </p>
<p>"Will do." It was a lie that she didn’t want to acknowledge. Every slow turn of her head brought enough dizziness she would nearly get sick. She looked around for anything useful, the sounds of enemies walking closer. She, at last, got herself to stand. </p>
<p>She held onto a barrel and looked ahead a couple dozen feet away into the helmet of one of many enemies. She fumbled around for her blaster, her heart racing as she realized it was gone. "Come on, this one isn’t worth it. Look at her." Her vision doubled, or tripled. She wasn’t sure. </p>
<p>"Hey. Target practice, though. I know you need it." She watched them playfully shove one another. "Really? You think I can’t hit a still target?" Moments later, shots began to hit the barrel. She stumbled. "Told you that you couldn’t." </p>
<p>She tried to get back up. "Yeah? Watch this." </p>
<p>Everything slowed as she felt the bolt hit her forehead, quickly fading into no pain at all. She heard laughter. She hit the barrel, then the ground, hard, but feeling nothing other than pressure. She thought of her husband, how thoughtful he’d always been. </p>
<p>She remembered her children as they were babies, the tiniest little lekku nubs sticking out of the back of their heads. She thought about how she was going to see her son again. She thought about how she’d hugged her daughter for the last time. How she’d kissed her husband for the last time. </p>
<p>She silently apologized for making such a stupid mistake. </p>
<p>********</p>
<p>Hera wasn’t sure of much, but she knew her mother was gone and that her father was locked in their room, sobbing. He’d taken the Kalikori with him. "I want in! Please! Please!" She hit the door with her small palms over and over and over. </p>
<p>Her face was puffy from crying. The fury was building. How <em>dare</em> he leave her alone to deal with this. Tislera was her mother, not just his wife. The door opened, but Hera got only a pat on the head as her father walked right on by. </p>
<p>She walked into the now vacated room and picked the Kalikori up from the bed as she climbed into it. She ran her fingers over the beads, thinking of each person each bead represented. Her mother had been the one to design her own bead. It looked as if her father had been the one to add it this afternoon. </p>
<p>She wished he would have let her help. Her mother had always let her help put on the beads. It was healing, in a way. She sat the Kalikori down and jumped off the bed, heading out into the hallway and ready to lock herself in her room. Chopper was waiting right outside her door. </p>
<p>
  <em>
    <strong>Short mom, what is wrong? What is happening? </strong>
  </em>
</p>
<p>Hera walked around him and into her room. "I want to be left alone right now, Chop. Misha’s dead. She’s gone forever, Chopper." She started to cry again. "What- what am I supposed to do?!" The droid followed her and the door closed behind them. </p>
<p>She laid face down in her bed and let herself sob. Chopper patted one of her arms with one of his manipulator arms. </p>
<p>
  <em>
    <strong>Short mom, I can fix this. </strong>
  </em>
</p>
<p>"I appreciate your thoughts, but she is gone. You cannot un-kill someone." He chittered and left her to nap. </p>
<p>********</p>
<p>He carefully placed his prize at the foot of his mother’s bed, excited to see her reaction. She was always interested in the way her friend’s tooka-cat brought back bits of gutkurr to share and now was the perfect time to try and raise her spirits. </p>
<p>He chittered to wake the girl. She rolled over, letting out a long breath. She’d been crying for hours. She didn’t want to see anybody. "Chop, I am really not in the mood." She wiped her puffy eyes and sat up as he continued his chitters. </p>
<p>
  <em>
    <strong>I got you a present. </strong>
  </em>
</p>
<p>The droid had never gotten her a present before. She wasn’t sure droids even did that. Nevertheless, if the droid had done something sweet to help her feel better, she was going to put as much of her energy into reacting as she could. "Okay, Chop. What have you brought me? A new tool? A meiloorun?" </p>
<p>
  <em>
    <strong>Those are far too easy to acquire. </strong>
  </em>
</p>
<p>He picked up his prize and tossed it to the side of her bed where she could see it. "What is-" she felt faint. Oh, gods. She knew the droid was a bit enthusiastic about violence but this was beyond bad. A blue lek laid out on the rug, fresh blood leaking from it. </p>
<p>
  <em>
    <strong>I was hoping for a thank you. Do you know how difficult it was to get that? </strong>
  </em>
</p>
<p>"Kriff! Oh, oh no-" He moved his dome around to follow the pacing of his mom as she jumped off the bed. "Oh, gods. You killed someone. You can’t kill people! What are we going to do?!" She grabbed his dome and stared into what she assumed were his eyes. </p>
<p>
  <strong>
    <em>I did not kill her. Your kind have two headtails. I left her one.</em>
  </strong>
</p>
<p>Hera was nearly hyperventilating. "That kills us! We need the lekku! Almost nobody lives with one lek! Why did you do this?!" She tried to keep her voice down. She didn’t want her father to get curious. </p>
<p>
  <em>
    <strong>For Tislera. Nobody messes with our family. </strong>
  </em>
</p>
<p>"Mom wasn’t killed by a Twi’lek!" Hera plopped down on her bed and turned her face into her pillow and began to cry again. This day was beyond terrible. </p>
<p><em><strong>You still need to work on your understanding of binary. I said it was for her. I said nothing about it being the person that killed her. That seems irrelevant. </strong> </em> </p>
<p>She could barely catch her breath. "Take the lek back to whoever you stole it from, maybe they can fix it. I hope they can fix it- and I hope they don’t catch you." He sighed and picked up the headtail. "Don’t sigh at me, Chop. You cannot take lekku." He moved towards the doorway. </p>
<p>
  <em>
    <strong>She could probably just order a replacement. Nobody ever appreciates me. </strong>
  </em>
</p>
<p>********</p>
<p>She spent the next few hours scrubbing her rug and floor, using her datapad to look up the best ways to get blood from things. Her father walked in as she was finishing wiping up extra cleaning solution. "Hera, may we talk?" She put down her supplies and sat on her bed. </p>
<p>He sat beside her, both of them looking at the door. "Hera, I am sorry. I am hurting. I know you are, too. Your mother meant the galaxy to me-" He was tearing up again. He’d hoped his tears had run dry. "We only wanted a better Ryloth for you and Dira. For you." Hera patted his leg. </p>
<p>"She’s not gone. Misha is with Dira. I know she is." Cham nodded, remembering how the Jedi had comforted her one night soon after her brother had been killed. How Master Windu had read to her, how he had left some copies of books on her datapad. </p>
<p>How Hera tried so hard to see the ghosts the Jedi could see. The pain he currently felt looking at her was overwhelming. Gone. Tislera was gone, and mini Tislera was here. He only hoped she was more careful in what she chose to do in life. He didn’t think he could handle a single loss more. He didn’t think he’d be able to look at his daughter without crying ever again. </p>
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